Chapter 2

The "immediate rescue" Ethan promised didn't arrive until three hours later. The rescue team brought a traumatized Leo back to the shore.

He was still crying out for his mommy.

The search team looked around the area for a long time.

But I was already dead. Strangely, my soul didn't leave this world. Instead, I floated in the air as a spirit.

Watching my boy sob so desperately tore my heart to pieces.

How could Ethan be such a father? Even if he didn't care about me, how could he abandon Leo?

My spirit followed Luke, a member of the rescue team, into the hospital room.

Chloe was lying weakly in the bed, and Ethan was sitting beside her, carefully peeling fruit for her.

"Captain, we couldn't find Hazel," Luke reported, his voice heavy. "We deployed all our local rescue resources, but still..."

Ethan didn't even look up.

"What could possibly happen to her? She's used to these situations. She won't die."

"Wasting so many public resources just to look for one person. How shameless."

Luke wanted to say more, but Ethan silenced him with a harsh glare.

"What? Are you unusually concerned about my wife, Luke?"

Rage boiled inside my ghostly chest.

Since I was young, I had been pressured by our families to be the perfect wife for Ethan. Yet his subordinates cared more about my safety than my own husband did.

Now that I was missing, he was actually accusing his subordinate of having an affair with me.

We had been together for seven years.

Even a stray dog would have grown fond of its owner in seven years, let alone a human being.

Thank God Leo made it back alive. If anything had happened to my baby, I would have haunted Ethan to his grave.

Leo suddenly ran into the room, tears streaming down his face.

He beat his tiny fists against Chloe's hospital bed, screaming, "Give me my mom back! It's your fault I don't have a mommy anymore!"

Ethan grabbed Leo's wrists, pinning his arms down, and violently smacked his bottom a few times.

"You are getting as unreasonable and dramatic as your mother!"

Leo yelled back defiantly, "I hate you! This lady looks perfectly fine! Why do you have to take care of her instead of Mommy?"

Chloe, hearing her name, shrank into Ethan's chest, her body trembling.

"Ethan, I didn't mean to cause this. Go find her. I can stay here by myself."

Ethan pulled her gently into his embrace, stroking her hair to comfort her.

"It's fine, Chloe. If she dies, it's her own fate. You have nothing to feel guilty about."

A bitter, hollow laugh escaped my lips.

Seeing the tenderness Ethan showed her—a tenderness he had never once shown me—made my ghostly heart freeze.

He didn't care at all that his wife was still missing in the ocean.

Leo stood by the bed, looking like a complete outsider, nervously clutching the hem of his shirt.

"Daddy... Mommy fell into the deep water. Please go find her. She's terrified of the ocean."

The man who was just overflowing with gentleness instantly turned cold, shouting at Leo, "I've raised you for five years, and you still side with your mother to manipulate me? I'm sending you to your grandmother's house right now!"

After Leo was dragged away, only Ethan and Chloe remained in the room.

Chloe rested her tear-streaked face on Ethan's shoulder.

"Ethan, do you know? When I was in the water, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought about our college days... If only your mother hadn't forced us apart..."

Ethan's eyes softened as he stroked her hair.

"It's over now. As long as I'm here, you will never be in danger again."

Watching the love in Ethan's eyes, my heart felt like it was being crushed by a sledgehammer.

In seven years, Ethan had never looked at me like that.

Even when I was in labor, he treated it like a business transaction, fulfilling a duty.

I used to think he was just a man of few words who preferred to show his love through subtle actions.

But now I saw the truth. He only kept his softness for Chloe.

I had been brought into the Ethan household as a future daughter-in-law since I could remember.

My life was bound by endless rules on how to be a perfect wife for the family.

When I was five, the family took us to the beach.

Ethan had a younger brother, Ryan.

Little Ryan had dragged me toward the water, but a huge wave swept both of us away.

I was lucky enough to be saved by a nearby fishing boat, but Ryan was never found.

Since that day, Ethan treated me with cold resentment, even though we had to live under the same roof.

In college, he met Chloe. Her wild, rebellious nature broke into his highly regulated life, triggering his rebellion.

But how could a wealthy family like his allow an ordinary girl to marry in?

The family sent me to pay Chloe to leave. Feeling guilty for "stealing" Ethan's life, I secretly added fifty thousand dollars of my own savings to the one hundred thousand dollars the family provided.

Chloe took the money without hesitation and flew abroad, promising never to interfere in our lives again.

That night, Ethan dragged me to a bar. We drank in silence, glass after glass.

Once we were completely drunk, everything happened.

He tore my clothes off, pinning me down with heavy, suffocating breaths.

"You sent Chloe away just so you could marry me, didn't you?"

He was rough. My head hit the nightstand, but he didn't stop even when I cried out in pain.

He held me, burying his face in my neck, crying silently.

I thought he was crying out of passion, but then I heard him mumbling, "Chloe, I'm so sorry... I'm sorry..."

He felt he was betraying Chloe by sleeping with me.

But I had been by his side for twenty years. My only purpose in life was to be a good wife to him.

I thought if I gave him my everything, he would eventually see my worth.

The next morning, he looked at me coldly and asked if I wanted to get married.

I was overjoyed, thinking I had finally earned my place beside him.

But the entire wedding was planned by his assistants.

Choosing the tuxedo, fitting the wedding dress, decorating our new home—I did all of it with his secretary. I didn't even see Ethan until the day of the wedding.

When we exchanged rings, he let out a long sigh, putting the ring on my finger as if he were signing his own death warrant.

His eyes, however, kept darting toward the entrance of the church.

I knew he still loved her. I thought as long as I pretended not to know, we could keep up the illusion of a happy marriage.

I tried my best to be a perfect wife, always preparing hangover soup for him when he came home late from business dinners.

I believed love was in the details.

When our baby was born, the doctor told me Leo had severe asthma. In a panic, I called Ethan, desperate for comfort.

I called him thirty-eight times. All I got was his cold voicemail.

I wept as I listened to the doctor's instructions and took our baby to every test alone.

For five years, under my meticulous care, Leo barely had any asthma attacks.

On Leo's fifth birthday, he whispered his wish to me.

"This year, I want to celebrate my birthday with Daddy."

Looking at his hopeful eyes, I swallowed my pride and went to Ethan's office.

But before I could open the door, I heard him giving instructions to his assistant.

"Chloe is coming back next month. She loves the ocean. Book a private yacht for her."

My hand slipped off the doorknob. His first love was coming back.

We celebrated Leo's birthday alone again.

Leo looked at me with deep disappointment, and I could only turn my head away, unable to look him in the eyes.

Since that day, Ethan's attitude toward me suddenly softened, as if he were trying to make up for something.

But the nicer he was, the colder my heart became.

One day, I heard him cooing "sweetheart" to Chloe over the phone. The last string in my mind snapped.

I rushed over, knocked the phone out of his hand, and screamed, asking why he was cheating on me.

He only gave me a cold, disgusted look, picked up his phone, and walked out.

I sat on the floor, hollow and broken, for the entire afternoon until Leo came home and pulled me up.

Little Leo hugged me and cried, "Mommy, let's just live together, just the two of us. We don't need Daddy anymore."

Even a five-year-old could feel his father's coldness and wanted to escape.

But how could I let go? I had loved him for twenty years.

Floating in the air now, I watched him take care of Chloe with such devotion.

Even when she just frowned slightly, he would ask her what was wrong with deep concern.

My soul felt like it was being pricked by a thousand needles, a dull, agonizing pain.

I had a weak immune system and got sick easily.

Yet the words Ethan said to me most often were: "Why aren't you dead yet?"

"If it weren't for you, Chloe wouldn't have left. You ruined my life."

Every time, I could only offer a bitter smile to keep the peace.

Now, I was finally dead. Dead because of his choice.

No one would ever stand in the way of his happiness again.